Renewable energy firms commit 3,580 MW of capacity in 3 years

By Alena Mae S. Flores – July 3, 2023, 6:10 pm
from manilastandard.net

The Department of Energy received commitment from renewable energy companies to make available 3,580.76 megawatts at a price lower than or equal to those approved by the regulator.

The committed capacities is way below the 11,600 MW being offered by the DOE for private sector development under the Green Energy Auction Program 2 held Monday.

It said a total capacity of 1,968.982 MW was committed for the construction of ground-mounted solar for 2024 to 2026.

Another 9.39 MW was committed for 2024 and 2025 for rooftop solar, while 90 MW was committed for the construction of floating solar until 2026.

Companies also committed a total of 1,512.384 MW for onshore wind for 2025 and 2026.

There were no commitments received for the development of biomass and waste-to-energy projects.

“Of course, we will review, and we will also have discussions with the auction participants. We will decide on the unsubsidized capacity after our discussions with the auction participants,” DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said.

The Energy Regulatory Commission set the Green Energy Auction  Reserve  prices on June  15, 2023, including P4.4043 per kilowatt-hour for ground-mounted solar, P4.8738 per kWh for rooftop solar, P5.3948 per kWh for floating solar, P5.8481 per kWh for onshore wind, P5.4024 per kWh for biomass and P6.2683 per kWh for the biomass waste-to-energy.

The GEAR rates were generally seen by industry players as very low especially for new technologies such as floating solar.

The DOE said the list of winning bidders would be posted on the its official website by July 12, 2023.

The winning bids were ranked based on offers from the lowest to highest bid prices and stacked corresponding to the respective RE technology per grid.